"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.

Just because you can't always succeed at teaching and trying to convert the clueless masses, doesn't mean you can't (or shouldn't) try. That said, people can be extremely stubborn. Those ones aren't even worth converting, honestly.

So, first you're saying we should convert people to libre alternatives, but then you take a 180 and say that we shouldn't even bother with some people. Does it ever occur to you that that is exactly because Skype et.al. are doing so good? I mean, the people who you don't deem worthy converting are keeping those services alive and then those people who might be worth converting won't move away because their friends -- those same ones who aren't worth converting -- don't.

That attitude is just like digging your own grave. The way to get people on board the F/OSS-train -- atleast when it comes to IM-solutions -- is to lose such elitist attitude and aim to please the largest group of people, not the smallest one. And all F/OSS IM-solutions suck at that, they're developed by the geek, for the geek.